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Short guide to applying for jobs advertised on EconJobMarket

Searching for positions

  1. In the top-level menu of an EconJobMarket page, click on "Job postings" and choose one of the options. You can browse all positions on the page you choose, or, for the pages of Regular positions or RA positions, filter or search the listings using the form at the top of the page.
  2. The right-most column of each page shows several dates of relevance, in particular the deadline for applications (in red). Next to these dates, some postings have an Apply now button, which means that applications for these positions are submitted on EconJobMarket. Postings without the Apply now button contain details about how to apply to these positions outside EJM. Click on the title of a posting to see the advertisement.

Preparing your application materials

  1. To prepare your application materials, go to the "Documents" page when using your Applicant role. On this page you can upload documents that you are likely to need in all your applications, such as your Curriculum Vitae, Job market paper (if you are applying for regular positions), and diplomas and transcripts of grades (if you are applying for RA positions). Some positions may ask you to submit a covering letter, the file of your thesis if you have written one, or maybe a coding sample. You can add any document to your store at any time.
  2. When applying for a specific position on your "Applications" page, you can select the components of your application packet that should be included in a specific job application, and you have the option to upload new documents that are not in your document store. For instance, you may want to upload a different cover letter for each position to which you are applying.
  3. Do not plan to submit your application on the deadline date! Your computer may malfunction, you may lose your internet connection, and a multitude of other events may prevent you from meeting the deadline. Also, on days on which many advertisements close (like November 15), the volume of traffic on our site is likely to be much higher than it is on other days, and page load times may be long.

Reference letters

  1. When applying for positions that collect reference letters through EconJobMarket, the first step is to get some people to write you reference letters. If you are applying to a regular position, you probably need three or four reference letters; if you are applying to an RA position, you may need fewer. Be sure to organize your recommenders well in advance of the application deadlines. Any recommenders who are not already approved by us will be need to be verified, and that takes time.
  2. Once you have writers of reference letters lined up, go to your Recommenders page and search for them in our system.
    • If a recommender is already approved in our system, and their email address and affiliation are current, you are all set: all you need to do is select them and they will be added to your application.
    • If a recommender has an EconJobMarket account, but does not have a recommender role, or has such a role but their email address or affiliation are out of date, you need to submit a request for us to verify them. In the request you submit, you need to give us enough information to verify that the owner of the account has the email address and affiliation you claim.
    • If a recommender does not have an EconJobMarket account, you need to submit a request for us to approve their getting an account with a Recommender role. You need to supply enough information that we can verify their name, affilation, job title, and email address. When we approve the request, your recommender will be notified by email; the message they receive will contain a link that allows them to register as a recommender.
  3. Depending on the notification preferences they choose, a recommenders may or may not be notified when you apply for a position. They do not need to be notified to submit their letter. All they need to do is log into EconJobMarket and choose their Recommender role. On their main page, they will see a list of your applications, and will have the option to submit the same letter to all applications, or to upload different letters for different applications. They also will have the option to choose a "Proxy" (perhaps an administration staff member in their organization) to handle their letters on their behalf.
  4. Letters of reference are kept confidential; they are not made available to you. They are made available only to the organizations to whom you apply. Your recommenders can control to exactly which organizations their letters are made available. Recommenders are not bound by the application deadlines for jobs. They can submit their letters at any time. Recruiters may start evaluating applications soon after their application deadlines, so obviously it is better if your recommenders submit their letters close to the deadlines. But they do not have to do so before the deadlines.